GEMINI MAN

An elite assassin finds himself targeted by a younger man who seems in all ways to be his equal. It turns out, there’s a very good reason for that.

See the trailer, clips, interviews, video featurettes and B-roll video hereFor more on the movie this is the websiteGenre: Science FictionNow Playing: Wide ReleaseRating: PG-13 (for violence and action throughout, and brief strong language)

The Addams Family

(United Artists) Starring the voices of Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, Bette Midler. Although better known as an iconic television series, the Addams’ originally started off as a series of cartoons by illustrator Charles Addams. Now they come full circle in this animated feature about the creepy and kooky family.

See the trailer, clips, interviews and video featurettes hereFor more on the movie this is the website Genre: Animated FeatureNow Playing: Wide ReleaseRating: PG (for macabre and suggestive humor, and some action)

Fronteras

(Vertical) Steven Sean Garland, Wade Everett, Cortez Chappell, Larry Coulter. A Hispanic border patrol agent must confront his own sense of morality when a task force arrives to contain a deadly narcotic that is beginning to sweep through the Southwest.

See the trailer hereFor more on the movie this is the website Genre: ActionNow Playing: Touchstar SouthchaseRating: NR

Jexi

(CBS)Adam DeVine, Alexandra Shipp, Michael Peña. Rose Byrne. A millennial addicted to his phone and with no appreciable life gets an upgrade which includes Jexi, a kind of cyber-life coach and cheerleader who helps him develop a better life. Unfortunately the A.I. begins to get jealous of her human’s new-found friends and wants to keep him all to itself.

See the trailer, clips and interviews hereFor more on the movie this is the website Genre: ComedyNow Playing: Wide ReleaseRating: R (for strong/crude sexual content and language throughout, some drug use and graphic nudity)

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

(Abramorama) Miles Davis, Carl Lumbly, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock.Davis was one of the greatest innovators in the history of jazz. This is his story.

See the trailer hereFor more on the movie this is the website Genre: Music DocumentaryNow Playing: Enzian TheaterRating: NR

Polaroid

(Vertical) Kathryn Prescott, Mitch Pileggi, Grace Zabriskie, Tyler Young. A high school student discovers a vintage Polaroid camera and begins to take photos of her friends until she discovers the horrifying truth; that those whose pictures are taken by the camera meet grisly ends.

See the trailer hereFor more on the movie this is the website Genre: HorrorNow Playing: Touchstar SouthchaseRating: PG-13 (for violence/terror, thematic elements, brief strong language, some teen drinking and drug material)

The Sky is Pink

(Gravitas)Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim, Ronit Saraf. The relationship of an Indian couple is seen through the eyes of their teenage daughter who is battling a lethal disease.

See the trailer, clips and a video featurette hereFor more on the movie this is the website Genre: Family DramaNow Playing: AMC West OaksRating: NR

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL

Based on a legendary manga, this collaboration between director Robert Rodriguez and producer James Cameron involves a young cyborg girl who awakens with no memory of who she is in a future she doesn’t recognize. A kindly doctor takes her in, knowing that there is a deadly secret the girl possesses that the unscrupulous rulers of the city will stop at nothing to control.

See the trailer, video featurettes, clips and an interview here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Science Fiction
Now Playing: Wide ReleaseRating: PG -13 (for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for some language)

Happy Death Day 2U

(BlumHouse/Universal) Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Phil Vu. The young woman who escaped a deadly loop of reliving her birthday over and over again ending in her own murder finds herself back in the same loop, only this time she is not sure at all why.

See the trailer and an interview here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Horror
Now Playing: Wide ReleaseRating: PG-13 (for violence, language, sexual material and thematic references)

Isn’t It Romantic?

(New Line) Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam DeVine, Priyanka Chopra. An unlucky-in-love architect awakens from a mugging to discover that she is living as the leading lady in a rom-com – the type of movie that she absolutely detests.

See the trailer, video featurettes and a clip here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Romantic Comedy/Fantasy
Now Playing: Wide ReleaseRating: PG-13 (for strong violence, drug material, and some language including sexual references)

The Wandering Earth

(CMC) Guangjie Li, Chuxiao Qu, Man-Tat Ng, Jinmai Zhao. When the sun begins to die, threatening all life on planet Earth, brave astronauts must find a way to save us all. Their Chinese opening last weekend took in more than $400 million.

See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Science Fiction
Now Playing: Regal Waterford LakesRating: NR

In this modern age, relationships can be a bitch to establish. We’re more likely to meet someone on the Internet than in real life. In many ways, it’s much harder to find someone now than it was just ten years ago.

Mike (Devine) and Dave (Efron) Stangle are two brothers who like to have a good time. However, sometimes their desire to be the life of the party overwhelms what little common sense the brothers possess. There have been so many occasions at family gatherings that their plans have caused havoc and chaos to the point where their Dad (Root) doesn’t want them near any family events.

But he really can’t keep them away from their little sister Jeanie’s (Beard) Hawaiian wedding, so he gives them an ultimatum; they are to bring nice girls to the wedding as dates, or they can’t go at all. The problem is that the boys don’t really know any nice girls.

So Mike, the liquor salesman who employs his younger brother, gets the bright idea of putting an ad on Craigslist. The responses are many and varied and it lands them on the Wendy Williams show. This brings them to the attention of Tatiana (Plaza) and Alice (Kendrick), a couple of party chicks who may be even wilder than the Stangle brothers, but they don’t know that. The two girls want a Hawaiian vacation and Tatiana knows instinctively this is the best way to get one. So she schemes her way into meeting the boys and voila! Instant wedding dates.

Of course, while the girls masquerade as a hedge fund manager (Alice) and a teacher (Tatiana), they have as little common sense as their dates. This leads to an ATV accident, an X-rated massage for the bride and to the boys getting into a huge fight. The problem is that Alice and Dave might have genuine feelings for each other, but when Alice tries to calm Jeanie down with a little ecstasy, it leads to something that may bring the entire marriage to a screeching halt even before it’s begun.

Fans of the comedy that Judd Apatow and those inspired by him have been promulgating for the last decade or so will probably eat this up. It is vulgar, outrageous and occasionally downright mean. That pretty much seems to be the state of comedy 2016 when it comes to the multiplex and there’s something to be said for that kind of humor, but to be frank I’m getting kind of tired of it. I’d like to see some variation in the types of comedies we’ve been seeing; everything seems to be so over-the-top, from the spoofs to the romantic comedies that we’ve lost the art of subtlety when it comes to comedy.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some really funny moments; the sensual massage that Jeanie gets from a very limber masseuse (Nanjiani) is hysterical and some of the more slapstick bits are also bound to get more than a polite chuckle. Kendrick and Plaza are two of the most versatile actresses in Hollywood and they both have some truly memorable comic performances in their pockets, but while they do their best here, it’s not enough.

Efron, who isn’t one of my favorite actors, actually comes off extremely likable here and shows that when he relaxes a bit he has all the screen presence he needs to be a star. However Devine simply tries too hard to be funny and ends up looking the buffoon. He’s a bull in a china shop and while that can be useful from time to time, it just ends up being distracting here.

I guess my biggest problem with Mike and Dave is that it all seems recycled to me. As I watch it doesn’t feel original or exciting; in fact, it made me feel tired, like I’ve seen this movie before. And I have, in several other movies. It’s disappointing; I like the cast a lot, particularly the lady leads but there wasn’t enough creativity in the writing to make this worth recommending.

REASONS TO GO: Some genuinely funny bits from a talented cast.REASONS TO STAY: Definitely a kind of “you’ve seen it all” vibe here. It may have been dumbed down a little too much.FAMILY VALUES: There’s quite a bit of crude sexual content as well as some graphic nudity, a whole lot of language and some drug humor.TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The movie is based on an actual Craigslist ad placed by two real-life brothers named Mike and Dave Stangle. In reality, the ad received more than six thousand responses and netted the boys not only a movie deal but also an appearance on the Today show. The real life Stangle boys cameo here as a pair of guests at the wedding whom cousin Terry offers to be the center of a sandwich for.CRITICAL MASS: As of 8/3/16: Rotten Tomatoes: 39% positive reviews. Metacritic: 51/100.COMPARISON SHOPPING:The HangoverFINAL RATING: 4/10NEXT:Front Cover

THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS

From the humans that brought you Despicable Me comes this charming animated feature about what goes on with the pets in a Manhattan apartment building while the owners are off at work and school. For Max, a terrier whose whole life revolves around his owner, things take a turn for the worse when she brings home a new dog who Max simply doesn’t get along with. When the two find themselves alone on the streets of the city, they must work together not just to get home by dinner time but to thwart the evil plans of a maniacal bunny to turn the pets of the world against their owners.

See the trailer, clips, interviews, promos and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Animated Feature
Now Playing: Wide ReleaseRating: PG (for action and some rude humor)

The Dog Lover

(ESX) James Remar, Allison Paige, Lea Thompson, Jayson Blair. A beautiful young girl who is committed to the cause of animal rights joins an organization that lobbies for better laws that protect animals and conducts animal rescues. She is given an assignment to infiltrate a suspected puppy mill, but falls for the charismatic owner and realizes that there are shades of grey in this game. Based on a true story.See the trailer and clips here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: True Life Drama
Now Playing: AMC Loew’s Universal CineplexRating: PG (for thematic elements, brief disturbing images and some language)

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

(20th Century Fox) Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Adam DeVine. Two brothers, hard partier frat boy types, are given an ultimatum by their family; to bring nice girls as dates to their sister’s upcoming wedding in Hawaii or be barred from attending. Not knowing any nice girls, they take to social media and daytime talk shows to find the right girls. Unfortunately the girls they find have an agenda of their own.

See the trailer, interviews, clips and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Comedy
Now Playing: Wide ReleaseRating: R (for crude sexual content, language throughout, drug use and some graphic nudity)

Sultan

(Yash Raj) Marko Zaror, Salman Khan, Anushka Sharma, Randeep Hooda. Although shot in a documentary style, this is actually the story of a fictional wrestler who rose to be one of the most popular athletes in India. After falling from grace, he mounted a comeback as a coach and then, again as a wrestler defying all the odds as he has done his entire career.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Romance
Now Playing: AMC West Oaks, Touchstar SouthchaseRating: NR

Our culture is going from youth-oriented to youth-obsessed. We tend to marginalize the elderly, joke about their inability to decipher technology. As much as we dismiss the elderly, at the same time we don’t want to die young either. We want to live long, full lives. We also tend to ignore that in order to do that, we have to age.

Ben Whittaker (De Niro) has done that. He’s aged. He turns around and finds himself to be 70 and alone, his beloved wife passed on, retired from a successful 40-year career printing phone books. Even the industry he devoted so much of his life to has gone the way of the horse and buggy.

He tries to fill his days with tai chi sessions, Mandarin lessons and lattes. He also finds himself spending an unsettling amount of time at the funerals of his friends. He is busy but curiously unfulfilled. Even some flirtations with a lady his age (Lavin) – most of the flirtation coming from her end – leave him empty and even more cognizant that his life lacks something.

Ben has the wisdom to figure out that what he’s missing is purpose. Getting up early and going around and doing nothing productive just isn’t in his genetic code. When he sees an ad one day for senior interns at an e-commerce women’s fashion company, he decides to go for it.

Jules Ostin (Hathaway) is the CEO and founder of About the Fit, an online store that guarantees its clients that the close they buy will fit them precisely. How she does that is a miracle of epic proportions but hey, this is Hollywood so just go with it. Anyway, she doesn’t particularly need nor want an intern of any age but especially one who’s older and reminds her that her mother (Place) is judgmental and hyper-critical of her success. Jules is a bit of a workaholic whose company in 18 months has become a real player in e-commerce and has grown to more than 200 employees. The investors are beginning to get nervous; not despite the success but because of it. They don’t know if Jules has the experience and drive to grow the company into the next level so they are pushing to get an experienced CEO who can take them there.

Jules doesn’t necessarily want that to happen but on the other hand she is tired of being absent in her own home. Her husband Matt (Holm) is a paragon of support, giving up his own promising career to let her soar with eagles. Their cute as a button daughter Paige (Kushner) misses her mommy but seems cheerfully resigned to the fact that she doesn’t get to see her much.

Jules is a bit of a control freak and is looking for reasons that the easygoing Ben should not be her intern; he’s too observant, she complains to her right hand man (Rannells) as she orders a transfer but she soon comes to realize that Ben has become indispensable, giving her the confidence to be a better boss, a better wife and a better mom but will she learn the lessons Ben has to teach her in time to save her business…and her family?

Richard Roeper describes director Nancy Meyers as “reliable” and he’s right on that score. She doesn’t get the credit she deserves but yet she turns out consistently entertaining films albeit on the lightweight side but that may also be the secret of her success; even her movies with somewhat weighty topics (as this one which looks at women in the workplace) tend to be low-key and rarely rock the boat with strident opinions.

Here she is given the opportunity to take on how working women tackling entrepreneurial success are treated and the answer is pretty much not well, but she doesn’t hit her audience in the face with that revelation (which isn’t a revelation at all, really) but rather allows you to come to that conclusion organically. The point here is that there is a balance between career and family that can be achieved and when it is, both thrive but when out of balance, both suffer. It’s not really a subversive point at all and yet she sneaks it in out of left field with few people noticing at all that she’s actually communicating with her audience. Maybe it’s because she’s a woman?

De Niro has had some forgettable performances in the last decade but it’s forgiven because, hey, he’s De Niro. That’s not the case her as he utilizes his expressive face to go beyond the script with a well-timed roll of the eyes, shrug of the shoulder or grimace, he creates a character that’s living. That’s a good thing because Ben as written is a little too perfect to be believed; he always knows the right thing to say, do or be. He’s the magical Grandpa.

He also has great chemistry with Hathaway who also is a very emotional actress. The two have a great moment when discussing their marriages in a hotel room while on a business trip to San Francisco to interview a potential CEO (don’t ask why an intern would be on such a trip or how he got into her hotel room while both are in pajamas and robes), but Hathaway reminds us in those moments why she is such a powerhouse actress and along with Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams is the cream of the crop of talented young actresses that has come to the forefront of Hollywood the last five years or so.

There is a lot of contrivance in the plot which I suppose is to be expected because the story is so thoroughly a fairy tale but if that kind of thing doesn’t bother you and you don’t mind feeling the warm fuzzies as you exit the theater (or, if you are reading this a year from when this was published, as you turn off your TV or computer), this might just be what the doctor ordered. Da Queen found it to be much more than she expected from the trailer and I understand what she means; while Meyers can’t help the old fart jokes that pepper the film, there’s also a healthy respect for the difference between experience and wisdom that Hollywood sometimes mistakes for one another.

REASONS TO GO: Heartwarming without getting too treacly. Good chemistry between De Niro and Hathaway.REASONS TO STAY: Ben is a little too perfect. Kind of fairy tale-esque.FAMILY VALUES: Some sexually suggestive content and brief rough language.TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The lead roles were at one time held by Jack Nicholson and Reese Witherspoon.CRITICAL MASS: As of 10/6/15: Rotten Tomatoes: 60% positive reviews. Metacritic: 51/100.COMPARISON SHOPPING::The InternshipFINAL RATING: 6.5/10NEXT:Meet the Patels